Wofford baseball needed one win but lost twice to UNCG in SoCon Tournament final

GREENVILLE – Wofford missed a golden opportunity Sunday to earn the program's second Southern Conference Baseball Tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA regionals starting later this week.

The top-seeded Terriers began the day as the lone undefeated team in the tournament and needed to defeat UNC Greensboro only once. The Spartans won consecutive elimination games less than 24 hours earlier to advance, required two victories to win the tournament.

UNCG, which played six games to Wofford's four overall, won the first game, 10-2, before once again winning by a wide margin, 12-2, in the second game that ended after only seven innings because of the 10-run rule.

The Terriers (42-16-1) established a program record for wins, but now must rely on an at-large bid to the national tournament with the Southern Conference rarely getting a second team invited. The last time the league had multiple teams make the regionals was 2012.

Here's some takeaways from Wofford's second loss on Sunday.

Wofford's decision on a starting pitcher was a curious one

Wofford senior right-hander Dalton Rhadans seemed an odd choice to make his first career start in 64 career appearances with the Terriers. His longest stint during that time was five innings two years ago.

He pitched the last two innings of Wofford's 6-3 win Friday over UNCG and allowed two earned runs on three hits and a walk over 37 pitches.

Rhadans lasted only 3⅓ innings, allowing six runs (all earned) on eight hits and two walks on 67 pitches.

"He's our most successful and reliable arm," Wofford coach Todd Interdonato said. "I thought we needed to do something early to kind of derail them. I thought we needed to punch first. When he hung two zeroes the first two innings I thought we had a chance on offense to get the lead and for us to create that momentum and confidence. But this is about (UNCG) and what they did. That was a historic effort what those guys just did."

Three consecutive home runs to open the scoring was big mentally and on the scoreboard

The Spartans entered the second game Sunday with momentum, confidence and positive vibes after having won three games by a combined score of 34-9 in less than 24 hours. They then took their excitement up another level by not only giving themselves an early lead with a four-run third inning, but also doing it with pizzazz.

Outfielder Kennedy Jones (who already had hit a tournament-record-tying five homers, including two in Sunday's earlier game) led off the inning with a single before second baseman Hogan Windish (the team home run leader) hit his 15th to right field. Outfielder Pres Cavenaugh went back-to-back with a moon shot to right before third baseman Mitchell Smith made it three consecutive with a liner over the wall in left-center.

"That was the inning that won us the game right there," winning pitcher Spencer Shuey said. "It was pretty slow those first couple of innings, but after that everything turned and momentum was on our side."

The Spartans scored at least one run in each of the next four innings, including three in the fourth and three in the fifth, to take control.

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UNCG freshman Hunter Shuey came up clutch in his biggest start

Shuey entered game having started five games and didn't find out he was starting until after completion of the irst game.

"I feel that I've earned my role on this team and that my coaches and teammates trust me and I just had to do my job," Shuey said.

Shuey went the whole seven innings, allowing two unearned runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts after 101 pitches.

"He's been a hybrid guy for us all year and we've moved him around (from starter to reliever) and he's just gotten better and better," UNCG coach Billy Godwin said. "He had some starting experience and it was really an easy decision with what we had left. When you hand the ball to somebody, you don't care what year he is, you just want a guy that competes."

Wofford's Lawson Hill becomes program's first with 300 hits

A bright spot for Wofford despite the two losses was fifth-year catcher Lawson Hill becoming the first in program history and the 15th hitter ever in the Southern Conference to reach 300 hits.

"That's obviously a huge milestone, but the thing about him is he is the most impactful player in the history of Wofford baseball," Interdonato said. "A milestone doesn't do that. He kind of had that hanging over him (trying to reach it) and nobody could've handled it better than he did."

The Spartans took took command early in the first game and rode that wave of momentum throughout

"I said in (Saturday's) postgame, whoever gets back to us is going to have all the momentum and confidence in the world," Interdonato said. "Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a lead to kind of knock them back down. We just never stopped their confidence. They were in such a good mindset coming in. "They were just supremely confident, in the right spot and we just never derailed that, never got them off that track and that's a credit to them."

Interdonato firmly believes Wofford will still receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals

"I don't really have any reservations about it," Interdonato said. "This is a full season thing and our RPI where it is and winning the regular season championship. This tournament is separate from what we've done. We're an at-large team and have been a (NCAA) regional team the last two months and I think we're as in as in can be."

Yunger added, "We put together a lot of wins this season and beat some really good teams. I think we've made our name known and should be in a good spot."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Wofford baseball loses twice to UNCG in SoCon Tournament final